Ancient language converter? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Ancient language converter? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Inyotef
01-14-06, 01:28 PM Hi..I want to do some PBEM roleplaying with some of my players using an ancient language. I was wondering if there were some programs out there that could converts words or sentences into a cool sounding language?
Ganny.Harper
01-14-06, 01:44 PM Here's a translator for english to drow to english

http://www.grey-company.org/Maerdyn/resources/translator/index.cgi
revnk
01-14-06, 01:51 PM Hi..I want to do some PBEM roleplaying with some of my players using an ancient language. I was wondering if there were some programs out there that could converts words or sentences into a cool sounding language?

Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/) translates blocks of text between contemporary languages (e.g. English to Dutch, German to Greek, etc.), which you can than muddle up, mangle and misspell to come up with something. If I'm out of ideas for a place name or something along those lines I'll sometimes just use the site to translate some literal English phrase ("big rock" or "town of glass" or whatever) into a random language and then futz with the spelling and grammar until it sounds sufficiently exotic.

Hope that helps.
WCH
01-14-06, 02:20 PM To speak in Middle English, merely pronounce all English words exactly as they're spelled. (pronounce the k and g in "knight," for example)

Speaking in Old English is a little trickier. See, sometime around the time of Chaucer all English vowels went up one position in the mouth. The "A" sound raised to "E," the "E" sound to "I," the "O" sound raised to "ooh," the "ooh" sound raised to "ow," etc. So, in order to correctly pronounce Old English, you need to, every time you see an "i," say "E," and so forth (for those of you who speak French, that's why the letter "i" is pronounced as it is in French; they're actually more correct than we are, if the word correct can even be used for something like that).

For example, the English word "house" is said "hoose" (like goose).

Ah, the joys of university level Linguistics.
sdragon1984
01-14-06, 02:23 PM try converting it from english, to another language, back to english, to drow, then back to english.

if that doesnt "fuddle" up the grammar, i have no clue what would.......

once the grammar is sufficiently "fuddled" up, try changing it to some random language again.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Inyotef 01-14-06, 01:28 PM	Hi..I want to do some PBEM roleplaying with some of my players using an ancient language. I was wondering if there were some programs out there that could converts words or sentences into a cool sounding language?
Ganny.Harper 01-14-06, 01:44 PM	Here's a translator for english to drow to english http://www.grey-company.org/Maerdyn/resources/translator/index.cgi
revnk 01-14-06, 01:51 PM	Hi..I want to do some PBEM roleplaying with some of my players using an ancient language. I was wondering if there were some programs out there that could converts words or sentences into a cool sounding language? Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/) translates blocks of text between contemporary languages (e.g. English to Dutch, German to Greek, etc.), which you can than muddle up, mangle and misspell to come up with something. If I'm out of ideas for a place name or something along those lines I'll sometimes just use the site to translate some literal English phrase ("big rock" or "town of glass" or whatever) into a random language and then futz with the spelling and grammar until it sounds sufficiently exotic. Hope that helps.
WCH 01-14-06, 02:20 PM	To speak in Middle English, merely pronounce all English words exactly as they're spelled. (pronounce the k and g in "knight," for example) Speaking in Old English is a little trickier. See, sometime around the time of Chaucer all English vowels went up one position in the mouth. The "A" sound raised to "E," the "E" sound to "I," the "O" sound raised to "ooh," the "ooh" sound raised to "ow," etc. So, in order to correctly pronounce Old English, you need to, every time you see an "i," say "E," and so forth (for those of you who speak French, that's why the letter "i" is pronounced as it is in French; they're actually more correct than we are, if the word correct can even be used for something like that). For example, the English word "house" is said "hoose" (like goose). Ah, the joys of university level Linguistics.
sdragon1984 01-14-06, 02:23 PM	try converting it from english, to another language, back to english, to drow, then back to english. if that doesnt "fuddle" up the grammar, i have no clue what would....... once the grammar is sufficiently "fuddled" up, try changing it to some random language again.